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[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 73 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, because it'll tie budgets up for ten years building it, and in the meantime all the fossil fuel people can tap those final nails into our coffin while they line their pockets.

[-] leisesprecher@feddit.org 37 points 3 weeks ago

Ten years? More like twenty. Hinkley point C was started in 2013, supposed to be finished 2023. This year the estimation was corrected to 2029-2031.

[-] Womble@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Counterpoint: UAE went from zero nuclear energy to producing as much as Denmark or Portugal produce renewables in ten years. From a base of zero nuclear expertise in the country.

[-] leisesprecher@feddit.org 8 points 3 weeks ago

And we all know that the UAE are the international beacon of safety, worker's rights, rule of law and cost effectiveness.

That's a really bad argument. That's like saying the Soviet Union was really good at digging canals.

[-] Womble@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

So existing examples that go against your argument dont count because you dont like the country. OK.

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[-] grue@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago

And even if they do finally build it, it's still a centralized system that regulatory-captured monopoly utilities can gouge the public on.

Solar and wind threaten them by being decentralized as well as by not relying on fossil fuels.

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[-] Wilzax@lemmy.world 67 points 3 weeks ago

If America hadn't responded to Chernobyl with fear of atomic power and instead adopted a "this is why communism will fail, look how much better we can do it" attitude, the climate crisis would be a non-issue right now

[-] oyo@lemm.ee 7 points 3 weeks ago

As an engineer, Chernobyl is terrifying. It was close to being 10x worse than it was. The thought that capitalism could do it better is the height of hubris. If you think your technology is fail-safe, nature (including humans) will find a better way to fail.

There are many reasons besides safety that nuclear makes no sense. Others have listed them here. But this recent hand-waving away of safety is frightening. Saying that our technology today is so much better while anti-intellectualism is running rampant. Saying facilities could always be staffed by experts while our political system is more unstable than ever. Thinking that we could store waste for 10,000 years when humanity has never built something that has intentionally survived a fraction of that time.

The downside of this equation is just too severe. Nuclear plants are uninsurable for a reason, and by default are insured by the public. That cost is ignored in the equation, because it's too large for even the biggest insurance conglomerates to consider.

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[-] FundMECFSResearch 65 points 3 weeks ago

Perfect. Now that renewable technology is finally cheap and quick to build, the oil and gas lobby is trying to redirect attention to nuclear, which takes decades to build in most places.

[-] maevyn 41 points 3 weeks ago

We can do both. There’s nothing preventing us from doing both, and the most effective way for the oil and gas lobby to get what they want is to divide us.

If pro-renewable people say “we must only have renewables, nothing else!” It makes us seem like ideologues. If we seem like ideologues, moderates get confused because they think “well I do like to hedge my bets and try all things out.” And pro-nuclear advocates (who are all over the spectrum) get louder, complain more, and swing more moderates and politicians back toward nuclear and away from renewables. Then you can repeat the cycle in reverse.

The conservative trick is not to substitute something that doesn’t work for something that does. It’s to keep us divided, blaming each other, and going back and forth between different solutions so often that we never get anything done. Chaos is a ladder.

[-] FundMECFSResearch 21 points 3 weeks ago

A decade ago, two decades ago, I was all for nuclear.

But something that takes 20 years from start to finish isn’t going to cut it when we’re already nearing 1.5 degrees.

[-] maevyn 20 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Again, we can do both. This is not a zero sum game, there are nuclear physicists and people who are passionate about nuclear who will either be working on nukes, OR pivoting to software engineering so they can make money on the crypto/AI/whatever boom. I have met them.

The enemy is not the person who wants to build a parallel solution to the same problem. The enemy is the person who says “oh oops, there’s just not enough money 😬 we gotta fund only one, which one should we do? Figure it out and then we can move forward, in the meantime we’ll just keep using these fossil fuels.”

They are playing us with divisive politics. My expectation if we fund both is one of the following happens:

  1. We reach 20 years from now, and between storage breakthroughs and renewables scaling out we are 100% renewable capable. We stop construction of new nuclear plants, we keep the few that came online for a while and then we decommission. We win.
  2. We reach 20 years from now. We have made significant progress on renewables and storage, but we still haven’t been able to replace base load entirely. Storage breakthroughs didn’t happen, and we have to keep funding more research. In the meantime, we’re able to decarbonize and rely on nukes instead of fossil fuels. We win.

Hedging bets is smart in all cases, especially when it’s not a zero sum game. Don’t let them divide us.

[-] FundMECFSResearch 9 points 3 weeks ago

Agreed. I was never saying it was, but that oil and gas companies are pushing nuclear instead of renewables because of this very reason.

[-] maevyn 8 points 3 weeks ago

Sure, both can be true though. What I don’t see very often from the pro-nuke crowd, right or left, is that we should defund renewables. Pro-nuke types tend to be pretty technical and very in the weeds so they see the benefits of both. They just get bent out of shape by their pet project being defunded.

On the pro-renewable side, there’s more partisanship because it’s a wider base, it appeals to the crunchy side of the left, AND nuclear has been character assassinated with fear around meltdowns. Most people with concerns around timelines and technical constraints on nuclear, like yourself, are flexible too.

It’s the crunchy folks and the moderates we need to convince. If they log onto a post here on Lemmy and see a bunch of pro-nuke people and pro-renewable people arguing and not agreeing that both forms are awesome and we should do both, those people are much more likely to fall for one of the forms of propaganda from the fossil fuel lobbyists. After all, we can’t even agree!

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[-] Womble@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

That kind of thinking was wrong a decade ago and is still wrong now. If we have any chance of stopping climate change we are going to have to massively decarbonise not only electricity production, but also transport and heating. That's going to mean a massive electrification of those sectors and a huge increase in demand over decades. Putting off large fixed investment now as it wont help out immediately but will help significantly during the time that electricity demand is growing is just nonsense.

[-] Mrs_deWinter@feddit.org 15 points 3 weeks ago

We can do both.

If you have a set amount of money and resources to invest renewables are almost exclusively the better choice. Investing in nuclear instead means it will take even longer for us to wean off fossiles. That's why it's so useful for the oil lobby to support nuclear.

[-] maevyn 8 points 3 weeks ago

We don’t have a set amount of money and resources, fundamentally.

We have an abundance of food, water, and shelter.

We have a lot of smart people who are currently spending their lives making money on made up markets and apps.

We have plenty of steel, concrete, and any other resources that would be in contention.

When it comes to money, if we raised taxes just a little, we’d be fine. I’m kind of an MMT person, but point is, we could get money, print it, tax it, etc. as it’s an abstraction on top of the other things above.

The mindset of “it’s gotta be one or the other” is a false choice presented by the fossil fuel industry and conservative politicians. They say we can’t raise taxes and we can’t increase deficit spending so they can get us to fight. And I guarantee you, if we all agreed to do nuclear, they would flip the script and start investing in renewables, because what they want is to kill momentum. After all, who do you think was behind all the scare mongering after three mile island?

I don’t want to kill momentum for renewables, but I want to start building it for nuclear at the same time.

We can do both.

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[-] 11111one11111@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

Jesus is this honestly how you think the world works? Oil is lobbying for their competitor? And why the fuck would any of these unfounded scenarios mean we couldn't, as citizens, push for both cleaner power options?

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[-] StraponStratos@lemmy.sdf.org 53 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

How disappointing.

Renewables and storage are far superior, in almost every conceivable metric it’s not funny.

Yet we let conservatives hype up nuclear garbage and carbon recapture as the solution to climate change.

[-] maevyn 32 points 3 weeks ago

I just don’t see it in terms of fundamentals. We’ve heard this for years, yet countries that have denuclearized have not been able to go full renewables, they have become more dependent on fossil fuels. Storage has just not been able to keep up with demand, baseload is still necessary, and we don’t have other options.

We should absolutely keep investing in renewables and pushing forward, they help. There is no reason at the same time to prevent investment in nuclear and other non-carbon emitting solutions, and if tech companies are willing to foot the bill we shouldn’t complain. Every gigawatt counts at this point.

[-] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago

We’ve heard this for years, yet countries that have denuclearized have not been able to go full renewables, they have become more dependent on fossil fuels.

Which countries are you referring to? Germany for example denuclearized and replaced them with renewables, they didn't become more dependent on fossil fuels (even if people like to say that).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Germany#/media/File%3AGermany_electricity_production.svg

[-] maevyn 11 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Japan for one, whose coal and natural gas consumption has gone up significantly: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Japan

Germany has stayed fairly steady, fair enough. Imagine if they had just focused on replacing fossil fuels instead of nuclear, they would be nearly carbon free by now.

I have no problem with the majority of funding going to renewables and making progress right now, but I also don’t see why we can’t break ground on new 4th generation nukes and continue investment in nuclear research at the same time. We can hedge our bets, make progress on both. If the 100% renewables + storage plan pans out, cool, we stop the nukes. If they don’t, then cool, we have our carbon free baseload production and we aren’t a decade behind on it when we need it.

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[-] joyjoy@lemm.ee 25 points 3 weeks ago

Still better than coal in every way.

[-] StraponStratos@lemmy.sdf.org 23 points 3 weeks ago

Right so if you’re moving off of coal, the cheaper and better option (renewables) is the right move.

[-] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 weeks ago

Not really, not right now it isn't. If you want to cover baseload with wind and solar you'll need energy storage. We haven't got a solution that scales well, yet.

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[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

yeah here come the nukes. They missed all the fun and now they think it just makes sense.

[-] Orbituary@lemmy.world 46 points 3 weeks ago

About fucking time.

[-] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 37 points 3 weeks ago

We've postponed nuclear for +40 years, causing climate change to get further and further out of hands.

Thanks Greenpeace /s

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 33 points 3 weeks ago

I used to be pro-nuclear and I am still not worried about the safety issue. However, fissile material is still a finite resource and mining for it is an ecological disaster, so I no longer am in favor of it.

[-] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 14 points 3 weeks ago

As someone who isn't well versed on the topic, is the impact from mining fissile material worse than the impact of mining the stuff we need for batteries and storage of renewable? Big fan of renewables, and not trying to start some shit. Trying to learn. Lol

[-] leisesprecher@feddit.org 15 points 3 weeks ago

Batteries can be made from literal saltwater nowadays.

Otherwise, lithium mining is certainly not exactly good for the environment, but can be managed. Uranium (even the non-fissile) is pretty toxic and can contaminate the whole area.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

What happened to the Navajo Nation due to uranium mining is disgusting and it's what made me turn away from supporting the idea of nuclear power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_mining_and_the_Navajo_people

[-] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

The early and mid 20th century was the era of thousands of Superfund sites. This particular incident doesn't seem any worse than average. We're still dealing with the toxic aftermath of mining and processing all sorts of minerals with no regard for the environment during that time. Is uranium actually any worse than any other mineral in that sense?

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[-] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 weeks ago

fissile material is still a finite resource

We have reserves that will last centuries, and it can literally be extracted from seawater just like lithium if the economics allow for it. Can't comment on the mining impact, though. Is it any worse than rare earth metals?

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 12 points 3 weeks ago

There is no economical way to extract fissile material from sea water. This is no different from people saying you can mine gold that way. Technically, yes. Practically, no.

The only way we know to get the uranium necessary for reactors in the quantities we need to do it is to mine it. And we don't even have enough to mine to last for a century at current consumption.

The world's present measured resources of uranium (6.1 Mt) in the cost category less than three times present spot prices and used only in conventional reactors, are enough to last for about 90 years.

https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/uranium-resources/supply-of-uranium

Sure, maybe some new practical way to make a reactor without uranium or to find uranium elsewhere might happen. But that's a MIGHT. With what we know now, we need uranium and we need to mine it and there isn't enough.

[-] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Dude. Read the rest of your source.

Thus, any predictions of the future availability of any mineral, including uranium, which are based on current cost and price data, as well as current geological knowledge, are likely to prove extremely conservative

In recent years there has been persistent misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the abundance of mineral resources, with the assertion that the world is in danger of actually running out of many mineral resources. While congenial to common sense if the scale of the Earth's crust is ignored, it lacks empirical support in the trend of practically all mineral commodity prices and published resource figures over the long term. In recent years some have promoted the view that limited supplies of natural uranium are the Achilles heel of nuclear power as the sector contemplates a larger contribution to future clean energy, notwithstanding the small amount of it required to provide very large amounts of energy.

Of course the resources of the earth are indeed finite, but three observations need to be made: first, the limits of the supply of resources are so far away that the truism has no practical meaning. Second, many of the resources concerned are either renewable or recyclable (energy minerals and zinc are the main exceptions, though the recycling potential of many materials is limited in practice by the energy and other costs involved). Third, available reserves of 'non-renewable' resources are constantly being renewed, mostly faster than they are used.

Literally half the page you linked discusses how we're not going to run out of resources anytime soon.

Known reserves are sufficient for 90 years because nobody wants to bother with further prospecting when supply hugely exceeds demand.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

I did read that, which is why I said this:

Sure, maybe some new practical way to make a reactor without uranium or to find uranium elsewhere might happen. But that’s a MIGHT.

Building tons more nuclear reactors in the hopes that we'll find new resources to power them all because we haven't spent enough time prospecting does not make much rational sense to me.

[-] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 weeks ago

You appear to be severely misunderstanding the source. You may want to take the time to read through it again.

Also, did you think we checked each and every resource we industrialised to make sure we had a few millenia worth before we started using them? Last I heard, our known lithium resources are only sufficient for a decade or two at current rates, never mind the increasing usage.

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[-] TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.world 12 points 3 weeks ago

People who think Nuclear is very safe and impossible to fuck up forget they will have a government department called Doge being run by a fuckwit

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[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago
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this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
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